Shannon Ricketts tion of other well-known national historic sites, the impact of the UGRR experience on a broad spectrum of Canadian life. There is an astonishing wealth of UGRR Commemorating the sites in southwestern . Fittingly, the most numerous surviving building type is the church, Underground that institution central to the lives of the UGRR settlers. One of the new national historic sites is the Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church Railroad in in . Now part of the North American Black History Museum, this evocative ecently, has been vernacular structure tells, through its hand- working with the U.S. National made, fieldstone construction, the story of the Park Service in a joint initiative small congregation who lovingly raised its walls to commemorate the and found strength and community through the UndergroundR Railroad, a phenomenon that wrenching period of adjustment and in difficult resulted in what is currently estimated to have years to follow. The AME Nazrey Church is been some 20,000 settling in named for Bishop Willis Nazery,2 who led many Canada between the 1820s and 1860s. While AME congregations into the British Methodist refugees arrived in various parts of pre- Episcopal denomination. The creation of the Confederation Canada, the majority crossed into BME Church was a response to the increasingly then- at border settlements along dangerous conditions in the United States and the eastern and western ends of .1 In the difficulties they posed for Canada, the story of the travelling to AME church congresses. With the (UGRR) is one of building communities and it is Civil War, many returned to the United States to the physical survivals from these settlement pat- serve in the Union Army, significantly reducing terns that have been the most recent focus of the refugee population in Canada. Over the Parks Canada’s program of historical commemoration. years, others moved to larger centres. Eventually During February 1999, the Government of most dwindling BME and AME congregations Map of south- Canada announced the designation of two new reunited. It is telling that, not only the AME western Ontario national historic sites, the commemoration of Nazrey Church, but so many others have been showing con- two persons associated with a settlement site, and preserved by determined descendants of the origi- centrations of Underground the inclusion of related UGRR history in the rea- nal refugees. All Canadians must be forever grate- Railroad refugee sons for designation of five existing national his- ful for their stewardship of these important talis- settlers c. 1851. toric sites. These designations bring to the atten- mans of Canadian history. Courtesy CEGEP de tion of the public both the importance of sites In the towns and cities where most UGRR Limoilu, created by UGRR settlers and, through the inclu- refugees settled, domestic sites have almost com- Quebec. sion of UGRR history in the reasons for designa- pletely disappeared, succumbing to pressures of urban development. In the 1980s, however, archeologist Karolyn Smardz identified the homestead built by Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Famed as principals in the “Blackburn” riots occasioned by their arrest and subsequent escape from , they became respected citizens of , active in the refugee community and founders of the city’s first cab service.3 The site is on the grounds of a busy downtown school and has little above-ground to suggest its UGRR history. Since the archeological remains are protected, the Ministerial advisory board, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, recommended that Thornton and Lucie Blackburn be designated as persons of

CRM No 5—1999 33 Plan of Elgin national historic importance, representative of (now Buxton) the many urban UGRR settlers, and that an Settlement, 1866. Actual exhibit on the experience of UGRR settlers be settlement may mounted in Toronto. not have been By contrast, the site of the former Elgin as completely developed as Settlement, a planned rural community of this suggests. UGRR refugees now known as the Buxton Drawing cour- Settlement, has survived with a very powerful tesy Ontario sense of place. Located on the north shore of Archives. Lake Erie and encompassing some 7,000 acres, the Buxton Settlement has been designated a national historic site because of the important survival of its settlement form, defined by field, road, and drainage ditch patterns and a wealth of original structures including houses, churches, a school, and artifacts exhibited in the Buxton Museum. Descendants of the original settlers still live at Buxton, some continuing to farm, and all proud witness to their forebears’ achievements. This year marks the settlement’s 150th anniver- sary and the unveiling of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque to this Amherstburg and is now officially acknowledged. recent addition to the system of national historic The role of the courts in defending the refugees sites. against extradition charges is now recognized at UGRR refugees came to Upper Canada National Historic Site as is the because, under British law, they were guaranteed important abolitionist activity which took place freedom and civil rights. Despite frequent chal- at St. Lawrence Hall National Historic Site, both lenges brought by in Toronto. Also in Toronto, the home of George American slave-own- The Underground Railroad in Canada Brown, renowned newspaper editor, politician, ers, the courts, in all Designations of historic significance and Father of Confederation, is a national his- but one known 1925—The Fugitive Slave Movement toric site which will now be able to more fully instance, defended 1992—The 1793 Upper Canada leg- present his intimate association with the UGRR their freedom. Full islation limiting slavery community and its role in helping to launch his civil rights were more 1994—Mary Ann Shadd Cary political career. difficult to achieve, but 1995—Josiah Henson Once again, research into an area of history the battles for equal 1999—Thornton and Lucie long overlooked has revealed important aspects of rights and for the abo- Blackburn so-called mainstream history. The recent national lition of slavery every- 1999—The Nazrey AME Church, designations of UGRR sites and persons have where, became power- Amherstburg, Ontario begun a process that has enormous potential for a ful issues in the con- 1999—The Buxton Settlement, fuller understanding of Canadian history. sciousness of the ______Buxton, Ontario nascent nation. African Notes 1999—additions to reasons for com- 1 Canadians actively Hilary Russell, “Underground Railroad Parks: A memoration of: Shared History,” CRM, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1997, pp. defended those free- Fort George NHS, Niagara-on-the- 15-21. doms by joining mili- Lake, Ontario 2 Historically, the name of the church and the name tia groups in 1812 and NHS, Amherstburg, of theBishop have been spelled differently. again in 1837. This 3 Parks Canada is indebted to Karolyn Smardz, public Ontario aspect of UGRR his- archaeologist in charge of these excavations. Osgoode Hall NHS, Toronto, tory is associated with Smardz’s extensive research on the Blackburns will Ontario be the topic of her Ph.D. thesis being carried out the national historic St. Lawrence Hall NHS, Toronto, under the direction of Professor James W. St. G. sites of Fort George at Ontario Walker at the University of Waterloo. Niagara-on-the-Lake ______George Brown House NHS, and Fort Malden at Shannon Ricketts is a historian with the National Toronto, Ontario Historic Sites Directorate of Parks Canada.

34 CRM No 5—1999